This page is just a place for me to post my thoughts on various topics, share updates about my life, and post any articles or research I think are worth sharing. It’s a bit of a catch-all for anything that doesn’t fit into the other sections of the website. I hope you find something interesting here, and if you have any thoughts or feedback, feel free to reach out to me through the contact page!
Alex Donovan-Lowe, Personal Blog
The world and the country is looking gloomier by the day for those who advocate and fight for equality between people of all races. Especially those of us who recognise that race is not a biological fact but a socially constructed imagining. On the global scale, Congo and Sudan are largely ignored by Western media, Palestinians are being left to suffer ethnic cleansing, the Uyghur’s are still being culturally eradicated, and the US is acting with impunity in a White Supremacist world order against Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, Nigeria, and many others. On a national level, Reform surge in the polls and they seem ever-increasingly to be our next government in 2029, Muslims are being attacked on the streets and at mosques, and the issues of police brutality that ignited the BLM movement back in 2020 are now forgotten and ignored. We need to do more to combat all of these challenges. What we need is a surge of left-wing progressive activity across the country and, ideally, the world. The Green Party and Your Party are primed to be central organising pillars for such activity. Not only that, but it will restore and rejuvenate a currently lacking conversation on race in the parties. They can organise events on a weekly basis to get supporters and people out and about ready to defend what little rights we won over the last 70 years, and from there we can resume advocating for better and more protections. Without this action, we concede the conversation of race-relations to the right-wing, whose vision of race relations is indescribably bleak. When economic turmoil was inevitably twisted into identity politics in the 1970s, it took a coalition of progressives of all races, classes, genders, and politics to force the likes of the BNP and BNF off our streets. We MUST do the same again! My CTA (call-to-action) is for all of us to register with parties like Your Party and the Green Party as well as organisations like SUTR (Stand Up To Racism). Once that’s done, communicate, network, befriend, and build coalitions to protect the rights of everyone. The Germans didn’t defeat Nazism, the allies did. Who can stand up to America and the West to save us today? We must save ourselves.
I was lucky enough to have been picked by sortition for the Your Party founding conference for both days. It was great! A couple of speakers to inspire the conference and get us all going, followed by heated and constructive debate. As time progressed on Saturday, imagine my surprise to see news alerts coming through on my phone saying about how the conference - which I was sat in! - was in shambles?! It was like I was in George Orwell's 1984 with the double-think. Here I was, having a good time, people debating and building something truly amazing and unique, which has the possibility to bring about a better future for the UK, and then on my phone I was just being told lies. It was clear that the mainstream media has it's knives bared and ready to take this political project down from day one. I do, of course, understand that there's a certain level of division that isn't sustainable. But I strongly feel that the conference and the larger party are a long way off of that. This is reflected in how the membership voted on the various proposals, overhwelmingly voting for: collective leadership, permitted dual-membership, the use of working-class and socialist proudly stated throughout documentation, and other proposals. We were a long way off of the division that was purported in the media. You can ask anyone who was lucky enough to attend, or even those watching online. As a quick note about the dual-membership vote. I am particularly glad about this outcome. Not for the reasons that were grabbing headlines, namely, the SWP (Socialist Worker's Party) expulsions that occured just before conference began. I am proud of this because we are, all of us, intersectional beings! I am not just a leftist, or working-class, or heterosexual, or British, or Trini, or Jamaican, or a man, or a survivor. No! I am all of these things. If I am in a party that focuses on Black issues, I should not be expected to sacrifice that essential work so that I can help Your Party. Similarly, if I am concerned about the planet, then I do not see the issue in merging these interests of mine. Do not listen to the mainstream media only. Talk to people who were there. Talk to people on the ground. Talk to me even if you really want to know. Let's work together to build a Britain where we lift each other up, not stepping on others!
I do not, by any means, want to shift focus away from the violence women suffer in our societies, however, I want to talk to some of my male peers here. Men are more likely to be a victim of sexual assault than they are to be a 'victim' of a false accusation. All men everywhere we hear the opposite of this fact being stated need to stop and tell our peers that, 'No, that's not actually true. We're actually more likely to survive it than be falsely accused of it.' Also, let's just point out the fact that the perpetrators are overwhelmingly still men! Even when men are survivors of such offenses, it's still most likely to have been a man that commited the act. Our focus should be on educating boys properly, not just to protect women and girls, but to also protect men and boys! Anyone against this position only shows that they don't care about the welfare of anyone in our society and would rather a society where they're able to commit such despicable acts and it not be illegal.
First, let's start with a bit of an English grammar lesson. My name, Alex, has the A capitalised. This isn't because I'm uniquely important — your name (if written with a Latin script) is also written with a capital. This is because it is a label. It's a descriptor that has been attributed to me. One that I happen to like so I haven't, as-of-yet, changed it. The grammar rule therefore is: proper nouns should have their first letter capitalised. Now, Blackness and being Black is not a neutral biological fact. It is not the same as the colour black. Being Black comes from our culture, our history, our communities, and our unique connection to the continent of Africa compared to other residents and diasporas of their respective continents of origin. As you can tell from the picture of me on the website, you know that when I refer to my spotless (literally), wrinkle-free, Black skin, you know I'm not referring to its colour as I'm very much on the lighter-side. Thus the capitalisation of the B can also help signify to readers that we're talking about the pseudo-scientific racial classification based on our phenotypical traits and cultures. For this reason, I'll be capitalising the B in Black when referring to race. I hope you'll join me in popularising this.
The other day, I was heading back home from the gym and I looked across this park I was walking through to see a chorus of heads of heads just peeking above the shrubs. Next to them, a monumental cenotaph standing easily 15 metres tall. It was November 11th, Remembrance Day in the UK, and I had stumbled upon a small ceremony taking place 'in honour of those who had fallen in service'. Now, I personally am quite grateful for those that gave their lives fighting fascism in World War II. Politics aside... getting rid of Nazism is always a good thing. But I found myself thinking about how fascism is completely resurgent in the UK and abroad. Reform and Farage's footsoldiers are abundant in every corner of this not-so-Great Britain. Despite this, the only kids that were there, the future generation, were phenotypically either South Asian or Black. After the handful of soldiers gave their commemorations and lauded their fallen comrades, these kids were the first to lay their poppy wreath at the base of the cenotaph. Knowing that they were still here, still out and about, still showing up for these overwhelmingly White ceremonies, gave me hope. I, for about 10 minutes, forgot about Nigel Farage and his sycophants, and I was reminded of the future that we should all fight for. One where those kids can grow up safe, free from racism, and not having to lay wreaths for even more fallen soldiers.